Abstract
First, I would like to thank all those who have supported me and made this great opportunity to serve as President of AADR possible. In particular, I would like to thank my wife, Sally, who is also my dearest colleague, and my sons, Trey and Jon, as well as all of my students and colleagues who have formed my professional network. We have been active in the IADR and AADR for the past 30 years, and much of my network has developed as a direct result of this Association.
We all have many roles in our lives—professor, teacher, mentor, and family member—each requiring our best efforts. AADR presents us with many opportunities for roles that allow us to attain our professional goals. We are the integrator of science into the service of oral health; we educate the next generation of scientists, transmit our findings to our colleagues, the profession, and policy-makers. What should we do to accomplish our goals? For today, I want to highlight our activities and suggest opportunities for our geographic Sections to “move our research into action”. Our new AADR tag line and logo symbolize meeting our members’ aspirations through our efforts to promote member recognition, build our professional community, and promote our commitment to excellence. Our new Web site features the Science Advocate. This provides timely information and alerts us to opportunities. It also includes career profiles of our member scientists, as a way of recognizing their contributions and our successes. I suggest that we broaden this recognition by also highlighting notable activities of our Sections.
Last year, President Brian Clarkson introduced several continuing initiatives. The student careers symposium has been of considerable interest to me, since much of my career has been devoted to training our future scientists. He also launched a fall focus conference presenting leading-edge science, as part of our commitment to excellence. This year’s event will be held in San Francisco on November 5–6, 2009, and will be focused on oral and craniofacial tissue engineering (OCTEN).
To state the obvious, this has been a topsy-turvy year. Most importantly, however, our science has never been more promising and offers truly amazing opportunities to advance oral health. We have entered the era of the ARRA, i.e., The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009. This stimulus package offers $10.2 billion in additional funding for NIH, including $100 million for NIDCR. Since this is on a very fast track, AADR has served as an information source for our members and dental schools.
Still, the scientific environment has never been more demanding. We must take every opportunity to make our case to our colleagues, constituents, public leaders, and the public. AADR has worked diligently to promote opportunities for our research through its support of NIH and the NIDCR, and actively communicates our positions to the legislative branches and NIH leaders; but we can and need to do much more.
We view dentistry and dental research as a critical component of biomedical research. This view is emphasized by the NIH’s tag line: “The Nation’s Medical Research Agency”. In these trying times, we all want to maximize efficiency and direct resources to enable significant progress to be made. There have been suggestions that we could gain in efficiency and effectiveness if there were fewer institutes within the NIH. While we all would agree with the Surgeon General’s report that states “oral health is essential to general health and well-being . . . ”, I doubt that many of us would agree that advancing oral health research would be enhanced by integration of NIDCR under a broader ‘umbrella’ institute. This and other critical issues constantly arise, and we must be aware and proactive.
Our advocacy efforts demand much broader participation, and this brings me to my final request for our Sections. We need to be active at every opportunity and at every level. I believe that our Sections have a vital role to play in this effort. The Sections can keep our goals front and center with their governmental representatives: local, state, and national. Our Sections and members, better than anyone else, can ensure that our representatives understand the impact of our work on the public’s health, and ensure that our voices are heard in times of financial difficulty and critical decision-making. This is a new and added role that I hope to promote for our Sections in addition to their traditional roles. Our Global Headquarters staff is capable of supporting this effort, and we can develop a new advocacy partnership between the office and our Sections that will help us advance our goals. However, it requires broad-based participation of our members and the leaders of our Sections. To quote business guru Steven Covey, “Without involvement, there is no commitment.” I therefore invite you and the Section leaders to become involved and active advocates for the AADR and our good works.
Perhaps you know the nine-dot problem. It asks: How do you connect the 9 dots arrayed in a 3 x 3 square matrix with no more than four straight lines without lifting the pencil from the paper? The answer comes from extending the lines beyond the borders of our first efforts, a visual analogy of thinking beyond the box. So I leave you with my final thought for today: Please advocate for your innovative ideas on how, together, we can further promote the goals of AADR. I assure you that the AADR leadership welcomes your new ideas. Thank you!